Yemen rebels reject newly named prime minister

Armed group still hold capital

Yemen’s Shiite rebels rejected President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s choice of a new prime minister on Tuesday, threatening to derail a U.N.-brokered peace deal with the armed group that has controlled the capital for weeks.

Hadi named Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak after consultations with political parties, the official news agency Saba reported.

Shortly after the announcement, the Houthi rebels said in a statement that the naming of bin Mubarak was not “consensual” and “makes a mockery of Yemen’s independence and sovereignty as well as the will of the people.”